![[University of Waterloo]](/goldbar.gif)
| Friday |
Monday, June 17, 2002
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Editor: Chris Redmond credmond@uwaterloo.ca |
This week
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Journalist speaks tonight![[McEdwards]](/images/2002/0617mcedwards.gif)
CNN news anchor Colleen McEdwards, a Waterloo English graduate, will
give a talk on media concentration tonight.
McEdwards, an award-winning foreign correspondent and head of CNN's
Moscow bureau, will speak about "Corporate Influences on Canadian and
American News". Her talk will explore the increasing concentration of
corporate ownership and its growing impact on how North Americans receive
information.
The event, which includes a question-and-answer session, begins at
7 p.m. in Davis Centre room 1304.
McEdwards, who formerly worked for Kitchener's
CKCO and for the CBC, is anchor of World News on CNN International.
She is the 1999 recipient of an Alumni Achievement Award from UW.
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And organizers of events, from concerts to club meetings, can submit them to the database through a simple form, making them available on the UWevents web site and easily accessible for the people who edit the Gazette and this Daily Bulletin.
The new-style UWevents was put in place over the weekend, and yes, we know it's long overdue.
It uses a software called WebEvent, already in use on a number of other campuses, and users here can reach it through a web page that has the now familiar "gold standard" design. The URL is the same as for the old text-based events service: www.uwevents.uwaterloo.ca. (There's a link to it from the first menu on the UW home page.)
The site explains: "You can submit an event listing by clicking to this form. Listings should be submitted at least one week prior to the event. Please include details, including what's happening, when and where, as well as your own name and email address. Submitted items will be approved and posted on the UWevents web site within 24 hours, and published in the Gazette and Daily Bulletin as time and space allow."
The proposal is on the agenda for tonight's meeting of the university senate, which starts at 4:30 in Needles Hall room 3001. Jumping the gun a little, Downey will be giving a presentation about WatCACE to the engineering faculty council, which is scheduled to meet at 3:00 in Carl Pollock Hall room 3385.
"The need for sustained research into co-op education is becoming widely recognized," says the proposal that comes to senate tonight. "It would be a shame and a missed opportunity if the university which had done the most to pioneer and champion co-op education, and which has the world's largest laboratory for the study of co-op education, were not to take the lead in the creation of a centre to foster and facilitate this research."
Waterloo's co-op program is "generally praised", it says, but "we lack the basis for responding in an empirical way to questions about the social, economic, and personal value of co-op education."
Also at senateOther items on the agenda for tonight's senate meeting include a proposed PhD program in religious studies, operated jointly with Wilfrid Laurier University, and a proposed Bachelor of Accounting and Financial Management program. |
UW has "rich deposits of data" to help answer these questions, the proposal says. "If the Centre is successful in its pursuit of these objectives, the resulting knowledge will benefit all who learn and teach at the University of Waterloo."
An appendix lists 17 faculty members, from fields as diverse as psychology and mechanical engineering, who have expressed an interest in being involved with WatCACE, working on such issues as "the communication skills of co-op students", "the economics of co-op", "the impacts of online professional programs on students' career paths", "how job seekers form impressions of organizations", and learning styles.
The institutions have signed an agreement to "develop joint plans of mutual interest" that give UW students advanced standing with the two programs, and could lead to more teaching and research collaborations down the road, says Ian Williams, associate chair (undergraduate) for the kinesiology department.
The plan grew at Waterloo through "grass roots connections" established by a number of people, including kinesiology professor Eric Roy, who is a member of TMI's board of governors. Michener is funded by the Ontario ministry of health.
Under the new plan, UW students will be admitted directly to either the kinesiology/ respiratory therapy program or the kinesiology/chiropody program, with admission decisions made jointly by the TMI program advisor and the associate chair (undergraduate) for kinesiology. Targets for the first year are 20 students in the respiratory therapy stream, and 10 in chiropody.
After two years of study at UW (including spring intersession courses), students will attend classes at TMI for two years, paying tuition at Waterloo for the first half of the program, and at TMI for the second half.
One new course, KIN 472, an advanced course in respiratory physiology, is being added at UW.
In the past, says Williams, UW students would have to complete four years at Waterloo before enrolling in a three-year program at TMI. The prospect of seven years of training was not very enticing, he adds. By condensing the course sequence to fit into two years and by recognizing the Michener experience as equivalent to kinesiology elective credits, the department was able to reduce the time required.
As a result, says Williams, only the most capable, dedicated students will be successful in the very demanding, accelerated sequence of courses. "Admission requirements will be as high, or a whisker higher than for the normal kinesiology program."
The payoff, however, is an "extremely strong demand" for graduates of the Michener diplomas. "The health care system is crying out for these workers," says Williams, noting the innovative agreement has "come together at a very opportune time.
"There's a new respectability for applied university programs," he adds. "The exciting thing is the potential for overlap. Our students have an excellent knowledge base; Michener has hands-on training. There's the potential for the two parts adding up to more than the expected sum."
Forty students from across Canada were selected from more than 900 applicants to attend the J. W. Graham Computer Science Seminar from June 16-22. The seminar is held by the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing, and sponsored by the J. W. Graham Endowment Fund as the first year of a three-year commitment.
"The decrease in enrolment by young women in computer studies programs at both the high school and post-secondary level is alarming," said Sandy Graham, of UW's computer science high school liaison office. "The J.W. Graham CS Seminar is our attempt to get these talented students excited about the area of computer science. Given the size of the problem, ideally we would like to expand this program in the future so we can reach more of the 900-plus applicants," she added.
Currently there is a very low percentage of female students studying computer science. At UW, the percentage has dropped to below 20 per cent from 33 per cent in the late 1980s, Graham said.
Seminar application forms were sent to math teachers across Canada "in hopes of getting bright grade 9 and 10 girls to come on campus to learn about computer science," she said. From the 40 students selected, there are at least two from every province and two of the territories.
"It is our mandate to make computer science accessible, interesting and relate it to useful outcomes as much as possible in the sessions," Graham said. "We are hoping to introduce these girls to computer science at a time when they are starting to make decisions about their future areas of study."
The program will feature lectures, labs and hands-on activities presented by professors, lecturers and graduate students from the school of computer science. Also planned are visits to Research in Motion (RIM), Sportsworld, Stratford and a social with female undergrad and grad students after a career panel discussion.
CAR
TODAY IN UW HISTORYJune 17, 1983: A first-year math student dies after falling from the roof of the PAC about 1:30 a.m. |